[masraum]

We live in the country now, on '6 acres. We have all sorts of critters on our land, deer, coyotes, foxes, skunks, etc....

We have a single large old live oak that is currently dropping a bumper crop of acorns. We also have 5 large old pecan trees that have a better crop this year than the last 3. I do see squirrels most days, but I normally only see one or two. I think I've seen 3-4 at the same time a handful of times over the last 3 years. I'd have thought that with all of the trees that create nuts, we'd have a bunch. Granted, the trees aren't tree to tree everywhere, so the squirrels do have to run across open ground to get to them from other parts of the property. It seems like when we were in the 'burbs, it wasn't unusual to see 3-5 squirrels at one time in our back yard that was maybe 1/20th of an acre.

Maybe they are more scarce out here because there are more trees over a larger area, so they are spread out. There are also far, far more predators, various hawks, coyotes, etc.... I have also been surprised that I've only seen a rabbit twice, and I think my wife has seen one once or twice. I chalk that up to the predator thing.